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spinach/sunflower seeds AND Vitamine E enemas

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 10/15/2009 3:31 AM (GMT 0)
Hello,

I am in a really bad flare (brought on by a cleansing product (CleasneSmart).. i know i know very stupid.. i read the product and talked to the health store owner and said i had UC and was told i would be ok... and I guess felt gutsy because I haven't had symptoms for a year).

I am taking 2400 x 2 Asacol, 2x Florastor, 2000 IU Vitamin D, Acidophilus Bifidus, lots of giner and turmeric.  Today I started with Vit E, ginger root, and wild salmon oil.

I got salofalk enemas which I will be trying tonight and want to try the Vitamin E enema as well.... is there a way to do both? or should I do one or the other, and which one first?

Previous to the flare, I was eating TONS of spinach and at least a serving of sunflower seeds a day.  Right now I am eating a very bland diet of rice with ginger and turmeric, apple sauce, banana, and bread.  I am scared to but spinach and sunflower seeds in my diet because of the roughage... is this a problem for people?  I am scared my intestines are very raw and painful right now and I am "pooing" bows of blood around 7 times of day... Today I started seeing some mucus.. I guess a good thing, but I need to get better ASAP because I am off to Korea in less than a week, and I DO NOT want to have to go back on pred.

Thanks for any advice you can offer

:)

Posted 10/15/2009 9:47 AM (GMT 0)
i would stay away from the sunflower seeds for the minute because they can irritate. i think i've heard people on here mention sunflower butter? might be better

not sure about the spinach, i used to eat a lot and it seemed to help, more formed bm's. but i'm in a flare myself right now and am not sure wether to try it

Posted 10/15/2009 12:03 PM (GMT 0)
have you tried fasting for a day just drinking juices. im doing that and i has helped my guts just to rest. i drink my own juices made from spinach or carrot juice . juicing does make me lose weight which i dont like but it does help your gut just to rest.
Posted 10/15/2009 12:11 PM (GMT 0)
Spinach and sunflower seeds are the only thing that I have found to bring me out of a flare so I would definitely eat them. As I matter of fact I was in remission for over three years straight from eating them but I backed off from eating spinach  for several months and wasn't eating as many seeds and three weeks ago I started flaring for the first time in three years. I then started eating a lot of spinach and sunflower seeds again and now am symptom free again. It works every time for me.

Post Edited (Cfromutah) : 10/15/2009 6:15:10 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 10/15/2009 12:40 PM (GMT 0)
Cfrom - How much spinach and sunflower do you eat? I'm just coming out of a long flare....so I just purchased sunflower seed butter at the health food store, since I'm still not eating scratchy things like nuts. I bought some frozen spinach but haven't fixed it yet.
Do you eat some of each every day? Every meal...?
Posted 10/15/2009 1:43 PM (GMT 0)
m_m_ John,

To answer your question about the vit E enemas and salofalk enemas.  I have use both of these but I'm not sure if the salofalk bottles can be opened to put the oil from the capsules into it.  I have an enema bottle that opens so I squeeze about 5 capsules into the bottle along with the medicine then I retain it for the night.  Its good to lubricate the enema bottle tip with vit e as well .                I continue this until things have settled down.   The vit e always helps for my bleeding.

I would continue on your bland diet but be careful with the roughage and seeds they could irritate you more right now.

Do you use metamucil at all?  Its a good binder.   I also noticed that your taking salmon oil, I thought I read a few posts from others claiming it did not help you might want to look into that.  Also are you ok eating bread, for a few of us here bread can cause more problems. 

I hope things settle down for you before you leave for Korea.

Posted 10/15/2009 2:50 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for all of your responses... you've been so helpful!

puffed rice - do you mix the salofalk and vit e in your enema? Also, I am back taking psyllium husks, hopefully it can help bulk up/  Thank you, i will look into the salmon oil, I did not know there was discussion of it on here, I went to it because i read wild salmon is a very good anti-inflammatory food... and i saw it in pill form at the drug store

Cfrom - when you ate spinach and sunflower seeds in your flare, were you already bleeding and in pain?

hellokitty - I've been thinking of doing a juicing fast... but i'm worried that all the natural sugars (since you're not getting the fibre to balance out the sugar) could aggravate.. I think I'm gonna juice 1 or 2 times a day to get all the nutrients that i'm currently missing out on... and try and load it with spinach.

rob_uk - i think i will definintely get some sunfloweer seed butter

Here's to hoping and trying anything logical!!

(Now only if I knew anyone with a baby... only i think i might be too scared of things going wrong to try it)


Posted 10/15/2009 4:53 PM (GMT 0)
m_m_john, 

yes I do add the vit e right in with the perscribed enema.  I did it with the hycort enema the bottles have a screw off  top so it was easy to add it in.   From what I remember about the salofalk enemas the tops dont come off, so you might have to find a bottle from the drug store that can be used as an enema bottle.  I found for me that the salofalk took longer to kick in so they switched me to the hycort and I have had much better luck with it.  Cortifoam also worked great.

Also I know metamucil contains psylium but when I took the psylium husks from the health food store it seemed much rougher on my insides so I ended up going back to the metamucil.  The texture is much different with the natural stuff  its a little coarser than metamucil.

You might want to try increasing your probiotics, when flaring I take probiotics but each contains over 50billion per dose so I'm getting at least 100billion per day.  You have to reflourish the colon with the good bacteria since you did a colon cleanse.

Posted 10/15/2009 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
For those afraid of the pointy sunflower seeds, you can just grind them up with grinder attachment on processor and use it in about anything from shakes to flours.
Posted 10/15/2009 5:56 PM (GMT 0)
I also do the spinach/sunflower thing, and I recently fell of the wagon, too.  Stupid!  Anyways, DO start eating those foods again but definitely use the sunflower butter (not the seeds) if you're really sensitive right now.  Also, since the spinach is kind of rough, eat it (cooked) with or after some soft white bread or pasta.  When I first started the diet, I was flaring so hard that the spinach would go right through me.  Sometimes you have to be careful how you eat it to make sure you don't poop it out right away.

Since I was off all meds when I recently started a small flare, the diet hasn't worked as quickly as it did the first time.  I'm better now (no bleeding, mucus, etc.), but I did have to start taking Lialda to give me a boost.  I'll probably take it for a few more weeks before tapering off.

Hope you're able to get well again soon.  Best of luck!

Posted 10/15/2009 6:14 PM (GMT 0)
I think I inadvertently got myself out of a flare with sunflower seeds and spinach.

I had been cramping pretty badly for weeks. I was eating oatmeal for breakfast and I figured it was too much fiber for me. So I switched to sourdough bread toast with sunflower butter (the kind with nothing added, no cane juice, etc.) I would eat one slice for breakfast.

about the same time I started juicing...organic spinach, carrot, celery and cucumber (all in one 8 oz. glass). However, I did start slow with only 4 oz. for the first few days.

Then I continued eating like I always do...sometimes healthy, sometimes not so much (I like pizza).

In the evenings I would have 4 saltines with the sunflower butter slathered on them for my beddy snack. My gallbladder squeaked a little, but if I ate them early enough in the evening I was okay.

After about 2 days I noticed that I wasn't bleeding and my stools were nicely formed. about three weeks after I noticed that I wasn't cramping much and my urgency was definitely under control.

So, this is what I do daily now. The only other thing I've incorporated is 1 tsp of l-glutamine in water first thing in the morning. You have to start slowly with that as well and build up.

Don't know if it's the combination of stuff I'm doing, or if the sunflower butter and juice is what did it. But I'm happy right now.

If you do juice spinach, don't do more than 1 oz. of juice in the beginning. It's pretty potent stuff...but oh, so good for you.

You don't have to be too concerned with the oxalic acid from the spinach because it's in its organic form and not inorganic (cooked or processed). Apparently there's a big difference insofar as it being good for you.

Hope this helps.
Posted 10/15/2009 6:21 PM (GMT 0)
Gosh, I should really start juicing. I'm getting tired of trying to fit spinach into my diet all the time. To just take a shot of juice each day would be such a nice trade-off.
Posted 10/15/2009 10:05 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,

"I am off to Korea in less than a week"

If you go to Korea, try lots of kelp soup to see it help you some. I took kelp soup accidently 3 days, 2 times/day. I noticed that I go to bathroom once/day. Then I searched internet to get info on kelp. There are many info on kelp and colitis. Note that when I make kelp soup, I use lots of kelp.
Good Luck
Jin
Posted 10/15/2009 10:33 PM (GMT 0)

thanks bonsai... i will eat lots of kelp.. yes I read on the internet that it would be good, but I haven't come across it here, also i measnt that i'll be in Korea in 2 weeks - not one.

... got my rectal syringe, so i can try the vit e/salofalk tonight... and currently have my sunflower seed butter

i pureed the spinach with ginger, garlic, turmeric, and olive oil and put it on rice pasta... i saw the spinach 2 hours laterr, so I think i may stick to juicing it for now... gonna need loadddds of spinach!

puffed rice - the psyllium husks are in pill form and they don't look coarse in the capsule... does that change your suggestion about the husks?

Posted 10/16/2009 1:06 AM (GMT 0)
the pill form should be fine, I thought it was the loose husks that you were taking.

 

Posted 10/16/2009 11:38 PM (GMT 0)
songlady, If im starting to flare and trying to get back in remission I eat a 13.5 ounce can of spinach every day or every other day and eat 5 or 6 handfuls of sunflower seeds a day. If im trying to maintain remission I usually eat one or two cans of spinach a week and and two or three handfuls of sunflower seeds every day or other day. But lately I have only been eating a couple handfuls of sunflower seeds every few days and been going months without spinach. A few weeks ago when I started flaring I started eating a can every day or two and several handfuls of sunflower seeds a day again and now I am in remission again.
m_m_john, In this last flare I was just starting to bleed but I had a lot of mucus and urgency. The first time I went into remission from eating sunflower seeds and spinach I was bleeding a lot. I just chewed up the seeds real good. Canned spinach is soft and so is sunflower seed butter if you wanted to go that route.
Posted 10/16/2009 11:47 PM (GMT 0)
I also wanted to mention that spinach is loaded with magnesium and I think its one of the important nutrients in these foods that helps some of us. And while juicing is better than nothing, I would be concerned that a lot of the magnesium would be lost in the pulp from juicing. But maybe im wrong and not much is lost?
Posted 10/17/2009 2:54 PM (GMT 0)
cufromutah,

If you want a good read on juices and juicing, the book "Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices" by N.W. Walker D. Sc. is a good one. He even has a whole section devoted to oxalic acid and spinach.

Most of his "cocktails" include spinach and carrot juice. He also mentions that juices without the fibre furnish every particle of the nourishment contained in the vegetable for quick assimilation by the body. And juicing gives the body a break from having to digest a lot of fibre. Of course, you could always use the pulp and make a mean cream of spinach soup!
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